PITTSBURGH — There are various sounds that normally accompany David Bednar pitching the ninth inning at PNC Park. His nearer entrance music, “Renegade” by Styx. Cheers from followers. The blasting of the “A New Pirate Technology” victory tune after the third out is recorded.
On Tuesday afternoon, a brand new sound was heard: Boos from the house crowd.
Bednar entered with a two-run lead, however he couldn’t constantly discover the strike zone and wound up surrendering 4 runs to the Tigers earlier than being pulled with only one out. The Pirates would go on to lose, 5-3.
As media approached Bednar at his locker postgame, first baseman Rowdy Tellez moved in entrance of the assembled group to make an announcement.
“That is the pleasure of Pittsburgh,” Tellez mentioned, placing his hand on Bednar’s shoulder. “To all people: We do not do this out right here. We’re a great group. We’re profitable for a motive. We’re going get our man again on monitor, however what occurred right now is, I believe, unacceptable. We, as a bunch in Pittsburgh, must be higher. He is an All-Star for a motive and we simply must be higher. That being mentioned, [he’s a] two-time All-Star.”
Let that silence any questions in regards to the clubhouse’s religion in its nearer amid his bumpy begin to the yr.
“Clearly, there’s peaks and valleys by means of each season,” Bednar mentioned. “We’ll recover from this. It is undoubtedly robust. Seeing these guys have my again, it is large.”
The season may be very younger and the Pirates are off to a 9-3 begin, however Bednar hasn’t contributed a lot to that trigger. Coming into the yr, the thought was there could also be some questions within the rotation, however the bullpen was going to be strong and shield leads.
It’s been nearly the alternative to date. Martín Pérez spun an eight-inning gem Tuesday, which was the rotation’s sixth straight high quality begin. Bednar, then again, has blown three of his 4 save alternatives, coming off a yr when he led the Nationwide League with 39 saves out of 42 probabilities.
It’s affordable to imagine Bednar won’t be as sharp out of the gate as he usually can be after he was sidelined most of spring with a proper lat pressure. He didn’t pitch till the ultimate week of the Grapefruit League season, so there are some cobwebs to knock off. The primary two blown saves have been hardly disasters, both, the place he couldn’t shield one-run leads, however the Pirates would find yourself profitable in additional innings anyway.
Tuesday appeared completely different.
He began by strolling Riley Greene, with balls three and 4 being fastballs that missed very excessive. Then, he plunked Spencer Torkelson on a curveball. A Gio Urshela base hit would later tie it, whereas a Kerry Carpenter bloop over a drawn-in Alika Williams gave the Tigers the lead.
Bednar exited with two hit batters, a stroll allowed and a pitch chart in contrast to anybody he has had in his 4 seasons with the Pirates:
“What we have seen over the previous couple of years is elite command,” mentioned supervisor Derek Shelton of Bednar. “During the last three or 4 outings, that simply hasn’t been there.”
Bednar and Shelton each confirmed that the right-hander is wholesome, and the supervisor mentioned he believes lacking spring is the “indicator” for this wildness.
“On the finish of the day, there is not any excuse,” Bednar mentioned. “I must execute. They performed their butts off right now; I wasn’t capable of end it. On the finish of the day, I simply must be higher and in the end simply throw strikes within the zone. I simply was not in a position to do this right now and it ended up costing us the sport.”
Bednar is trying to get his rhythm again, and whereas Shelton didn’t instantly deal with if Bednar may change innings to get again on monitor, it appears too quickly to imagine Aroldis Chapman will tackle the nearer function.
“I believe we’ll sit down and speak about why we expect there’s command points,” Shelton mentioned. “If it is mechanical, if it is pitch combine, what it’s. I believe as soon as we determine that out, we type of go from there.”
For now, the precedence is getting the two-time All-Star again to his 2023 type.
“You by no means wish to have these stretches, however I believe all people’s gone by means of these earlier than,” Bednar mentioned. “I’ve had some struggles earlier than and overcome them. It is nonetheless so early. Clearly, [it’s] very irritating, however on the finish of the yr, hopefully we’ll be trying again and laughing at this.”
